A Look Into Charlotte FC’s First Playoff Series

This postseason, Charlotte FC lived by the pen and died by the pen. And by pen, of course, I am referring to penalty kicks.

Charlotte FC finished its third season with 51 points from 14 wins and nine draws, sending them into the playoffs as the fifth seed, the team’s highest ever following a play-in berth in 2023. Fourth seed Orlando City SC finished just one point ahead of Charlotte in the 34-match MLS regular season, giving them home field advantage in a three-match series.

After a lackluster first match in Orlando that ended in a 2-0 loss and a Pep Biel red card, Charlotte held on at home to take their second match in the best-of-three series to penalty kicks after a 0-0 draw in regulation. Thanks to the heroics of goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina, as well as perfect form from the outfield players, the team notched its first playoff win in the club’s short history on Nov. 1.

Kahlina, who was announced as MLS Goalkeeper of the Year Award on Nov. 12, turned in a Man of the Match performance at Bank of America Stadium befitting Charlotte’s most important player. Supported by one of the best defensive lines in the league, Kahlina only allowed 37 goals all season — the best record in the Eastern Conference, and second-best in all of MLS. 

He kept up that level of quality throughout the playoff series, saving penalty kicks in both overtime and regulation.

Despite Kahlina’s near-flawless performance in Game 2, penalty kicks would spell the demise of Charlotte’s playoff hopes back in Orlando for Game 3. After Charlotte went up 0-1 thanks to a Karol Świderski goal off of a Liel Abada assist, the officials awarded Orlando a controversial penalty in stoppage time that gave Facundo Torres an easy chance at the equalizer.

Miraculously, Kahlina saved Torres’ penalty attempt in the 102nd minute of play, but the ball bounced off his gloves back towards Torres, who easily slotted the rebound in the net. The final match of the series would, yet again, be decided by a penalty kick shootout.

This time, Kahlina was unable to make a single save on Orlando, and penalty kick misses by Biel and Świderski gave Kahlina no margin for error in goal. Orlando put four straight penalty kicks into the back of the net, winning the shootout 1 (4) – 1 (1) after captain Ashley Westwood converted the lone penalty kick for Charlotte.

Adding injury to insult, New York City FC upset FC Cincinnati while Atlanta United somehow dispatched Lionel Messi and Inter Miami, meaning Charlotte would have had the chance to host two additional matches if they had won the Saturday night shootout, since they would have been the highest seed remaining in the East. 

Now, Orlando will have that honor, hosting Atlanta in the next round as NYCFC and the New Jersey-based New York Red Bulls play a Hudson River derby with the two winners meeting in the Eastern Conference finals.

Though out of the 2024 playoffs, Charlotte FC is now a club with a serious chip on its shoulder. Counted out early in the seasons by MLS pundits, the club was one bounce off a goalie glove from making the Eastern Conference Semifinals with home field advantage. 

Westwood has already told reporters and fans alike that the expectation for year four is finishing top four in the conference or better.

Coach Dean Smith, on track to be the clubs first coach to serve two seasons without an “interim” tag, is hopeful for 2024 as well.

“I think we’ve started something here,” said Smith after the Game 3 loss. “We’ve been watering it, and it’s been growing, and I think it will continue to grow … They’re starting to coach themselves, which is part of our job to help them to do, so that gives me an awful lot of hope.”

On the other hand, with disappointing calls ending The Crown’s season, Smith couldn’t help but return to a recurring theme of his press conferences this year.

“My views on officiating in the MLS probably haven’t grown this season,” Smith added. For those just joining us, the coach’s views on MLS officiating could not be described as wonderstruck. 

In a two-part series, we’ll run it back to recall the rollercoaster of emotion that was Charlotte FC’s first non-play-in playoff experience. And to start, we’ll go back to Orlando for Game 1. 

Game 1; Sunday, October 27; Inter&Co Stadium, Orlando

Charlotte FC came into the playoff fixtures with confidence and a healthy roster.

“We’ve got players who are in the form at the moment all wanting to start the game, and that’s where I said I wanted,” Smith told reporters in the days leading up to the first match. 

For Game 1, Smith deployed the starting lineup that had worked for him down the stretch, winning four of Charlotte’s last five regular season matches.

Kahlina, who played every regular season minute for The Crown, would start in goal. After two major changes throughout the season due to the arrival of US Men’s National Team defender Tim Ream, Smith had settled on a back line of Ream and Nathan Byrne at fullback with the young duo of Adilson Malanda and Andrew Privette at center back. Smith would start the same back line with Kahlina in all three playoff matches.

In midfield, Westwood would wear the captain’s armband throughout the playoffs, joined in each match by Brandt Bronico. In the first match, Smith started former Orlando player Júnior Urso to complete his midfield trio. Djibril Diani would take over for Urso in the following matches, a decision that would prove consequential for a number of reasons.

Unsurprisingly, Smith started his three designated players up front: Świderski, Biel, and Liel Abada, though that lineup would change for each of the three matches. The choice was indicative of the struggle Smith has faced up front all year: his top goal scorer, Patrick Agyemang, started on the bench.

Smith, who has explained in the past how his experience as a center back influences his approach to coaching forwards, told reporters he planned for his strikers to take the fight to the core of Orlando’s back line, frustrating them to the point of making unforced errors.

Read more: Getting to Know Charlotte FC Head Coach Dean Smith

However, Orlando came out fighting and attacked Charlotte’s goal from the start. Though Charlotte deliberately plays a low possession game, the team ceded the first 15 minutes to the home team before getting a decent scoring chance, while on the other side of the pitch an eighth-minute header barely missed Kahlina’s net.

Throughout the first 30 minutes, Orlando had its share of near misses and offsides calls impeded their momentum (Orlando would see four offsides flags in the match to zero for Charlotte). Abada would cause the most trouble for Orlando, but was unable to get off a good shot.

The Crown’s stout defending would hold until the 32nd minute, when Uruguay men’s national team member Facundo Torres found himself in the box with a cross that deflected off of Malanda’s head. Torres successfully volleyed the ball toward the goal, hitting the crossbar from the bottom side and making the shot unsavable for Kahlina.

“The game was probably lost in the first half,” Smith told reporters after the match. “We turned the ball over too cheaply.”

Captain Ashley Westwood agreed that the first half cost the team the match.

“We were sloppy on the ball,” said Westwood at the post-match press conference. “They wanted a fast-paced game, and we played into their hands.”

Kahlina, however, would keep Charlotte in the match with big saves against Torres, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Ramiro Enrique. Charlotte’s strength in goal gave Abada the opportunity to equalize on a couple of chances, including a cheeky 62nd-minute chip that sailed slightly above the crossbar.

Soon after, Agyemang came in for Swiderski, and within a minute Abada delivered a cross to the tall striker’s head for Charlotte’s best chance of the game, forcing a save from Orlando goalkeeper Pedro Gallese. The door stayed open until the 76th minute, when Orlando caught Charlotte in transition and The Crown paid the price.

Read more: Patrick Agyemang Traces His Journey from CT to Charlotte FC

Orlando winger Iván Angulo put together a perfectly executed play starting in the home team’s third, then passing the ball to teammate César Araújo, who sent the ball down the left wing for Angulo. 

Angulo beat Malanda and give Martín Ojeda time to get in an onside position, sending a short pass to Ojeda in the box. The Orlando forward was able to break through both Malanda and Privett in the box to launch the ball between Kahlina and the left goalpost.

“We didn’t handle the game very well,” said Westwood. “It’s a collective effort, [and for the] second half we were a little bit better, but not to the standards that we expect … It is what it is, we can’t be too down.”

That should have been the end of a disappointing 2-0 loss for Charlotte, but Biel — who was not subbed out along with Swiderski and Abada — changed the trajectory of the series with a confounding red card in stoppage time. Biel fell after a collision, then seemed to make a kicking motion toward an Orlando player.

Westwood called the red card “soft,” while Smith voiced his intention to appeal the call. 

“At the time I just thought it was a tangle of legs,” said Smith after the match. “I’ve just come in and watched it back, and I want the club to go and appeal it … We have to appeal that because it’s never been a red card.”

The call would stand despite the appeal, but Westwood was already looking forward to the rematch.

“It’s over three games. They used their homefield advantage tonight, we need to use ours on Friday,” said Westwood. “It’s a completely different game at The Bank.”

The home fans would be one of many advantages in the fight to keep the team’s playoff hopes alive.

“We’ve lost one game in I-don’t-know-how-many. We’ve been here before, we know what we need to do on Friday, it’s a must-win game, as simple as that,” Westwood concluded.

Game 2 & 3 to come later this week…